This proposal requests partial support for an international meeting on Mammalian DNA Repair, a Gordon Research Conference that is held bi-annually and will be held in Ventura, California, Feb 6-11, 2011. The broad and long term goal of the conference is to increase our understanding of, and stimulate further research on, the roles that a multitude of DNA Repair pathways play in human health. The specific aims of this meeting will be to convene ~36 invited speakers that represent critical areas in the mammalian DNA repair field, with a total of 135 participants for a five day conference in a relatively isolated setting. The program will have two Keynote Lectures and eight sessions that broadly address current issues in structural biology of DNA repair, DNA damage signaling, recombination and genomic stability, DNA and RNA base lesion repair, DNA repair in the context of chromatin, systems-wide responses to DNA damage, and the role of DNA repair in cancer etiology, cancer therapy, neurodegeneration and aging. In addition, there will be four two hour poster sessions that will permit all participants to contribute to these and other emerging topics. Moreover, 10 short talks will be chosen from the poster abstracts and sprinkled throughout the sessions. The significance of this application is that the Gordon Research Conference on Mammalian DNA Repair is a critical component the rotating series of large and small conferences that propel research in the international community of researchers in DNA Repair. The health relatedness of this application is that the presentations and discussions will define salient questions relating to human health and disease, in particular questions relating to cancer etiology, cancer treatment, neurodegeneration and aging. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Project Narrative The health relatedness of this application is that the presentations and discussions at the 2011 Mammalian DNA Repair Gordon Research Conference will help to define salient questions that delineate how DNA repair impacts human health and disease. In particular it will help define questions relating to cancer etiology, cancer treatment, neurodegeneration and aging.